For the first time since 2009-2010, neither Calgary nor Edmonton was among the top five census metropolitan areas with the strongest population growth in Canada, according to a report released on Tuesday by Statistics Canada.

“The population growth of CMAs (census metropolitan areas) in Alberta has been lower since 2013-2014, coinciding with the commodities downturn that began in 2014. This downturn was also associated with the rising unemployment rate in the province from the beginning of 2015, which reached a peak at the end of 2016,” said the federal agency.

StatsCan said that on July 1, 2017, seven in 10 Canadians (70.5 per cent), or 25,893,686 people were living in CMAs. Canada’s three largest CMAs – Toronto, Montréal and Vancouver – were home to more than one in three Canadians (35.6 per cent).

The report said that interprovincial migration rates in the Calgary (-0.3 per cent) and Edmonton (-0.2 per cent) were negative for the second consecutive year, following five years of gains.